Why Seattle is better than Arizona: A love letter

Here’s another love letter to Seattle. This one comes to us from a seattlepi.com reader named Melissa, and it’s all about the differences between Arizona and the Pacific Northwest.

We’re periodically posting reader emails and comments about why they love living in Seattle — or why they miss living here. Email me your own love letter to Seattle, and we’ll feature some of them here on the blog. Or just leave a Facebook comment below, saying why you love being a Seattleite.

Here’s what Melissa wrote:

I lived in Arizona for the first 18 years of my life. It’s sunny, but that gets really old really fast. Living there I always heard, “Well, least it’s a dry heat!” Why would dry heat be any better? That just means your skin gets chapped and if you’re like me, respiratory issues.

When I first moved here I thought I was in fairy tale! I couldn’t believe how much green there was. As in, real green. Not that sickly brown-green you see in Arizona shrubbery. Lush and healthy green. It’s magical. I’ve never been one to stop and look at the scenery, but now I find myself doing it all the time!

My skin feels refreshed and I don’t get bronchitis a couple times a year anymore. I never thought I’d actually wake up to clear nasal passages! The smells of Seattle are also quite nice. Even the dirt. I’ve never seen dark brown dirt before, and it smells like you could grow anything in it. The dirt in Arizona are just piles of dust. Gross.

And then I hear people who’ve lived here forever complain about the rain. Unappreciative. While others beg for sun, I beg for the rain to stay. It makes everything smell nice and it’s fun to play in. I also live in an apartment, which for some reason does not have air conditioning (that’s a new one for me), so I rather like the extra “cool” days!

I also love the people. I lived in a small town before, and everyone looked like they came from the same cookie cutter. Some people in Seattle look a bit strange, but they seem like most fun to talk to.

Want to read more? Here’s a summary of all the letters we’ve published so far.